1,000 signatures reached
To: Helen Stephenson CBE, Charity Commission
Save the Victoria Hall
Stop Ealing Council disposing of property owned and governed by a charitable trust. The Victoria Hall was created as a community amenity, to accommodate meetings, concerts, exhibitions, celebrations and award ceremonies etc. It has served the residents of Ealing for 125 years and was paid for by public subscription. It should not be put into the hands of commercial hotel developers, whose management cannot, by definition, be in the interests of the intended beneficiaries..
Why is this important?
The Victoria Hall and ancillary space, including the Prince's Hall directly below it, is not the Council's to dispose of: it belongs to the people of Ealing, who have benefited from its facilities since the 1890s. It is wrong that part of this Grade II-listed building should be demolished and the whole of the charitable trust area be subsumed into a hotel. The intended swap of the Prince's Hall with the Queen's Hall - smaller, and some distance away - would deprive the Victoria Hall of the services it needs to function as a public venue. There is no other community space left in central Ealing. The deal between Council and developers should not be allowed to proceed.
